PT-1 The Purpose of the Vision (Zech. 4:4-5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2016 11:33 PM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  The Purpose of the Vision PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 4:4-5

            Message of the verses:  “4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."

            Now as we look at these verses what we see here as interrupted by both Jewish scholars and Christians scholars is “that the lamp stand represents the combined testimony of Israel as a nation under God.  That the lamp stand is Israel lit again to be the light of the world that God had intended originally for her to be.  Now that’s basically the simple interpretation.”  (John MacArthur)

            Now I have to say that in my preparation of my study in the gospel of John, chapter eight starting at verse 12 which states “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."”  I have mentioned that my study of John in the 7^th and 8^th chapters has a lot in common with a number of things that I have been studying, including our Sunday school class which we will be looking at the 49^th chapter of Isaiah and then as mentioned the 7^th and 8^th chapters of John.  In those chapters from John’s gospel the scene is the Feast of Tabernacles and in both of these chapters Jesus takes some things that come out of that feast which point to the Messiah and at the right time of this feast Jesus begins to talk about living water, something He also spoke to the woman at the well.  During that feast the priests would go and bring water from a pool in the city of Jerusalem, and on the last day they would bring the water into the temple and pour it out and this is when Jesus began to teach them.  Now in the eight chapter we see the things that happened in it were also related to this feast for the Jews had a bright light that they would use to shine the entire night of this feast which represented what the Lord did in the wilderness when we see that the Jews traveled under a cloud during the day time and at night a great light would keep them warm and so as we see in our verse from John 12 at the right time Jesus would say that He is the light of the world, something we also see in chapter one.  In the 49^th chapter of Isaiah we also see a prophecy of the Messiah being the Light “Isa 49:6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."”  So we see from John, Zechariah, and Isaiah are all talking about the light.  Now I believe that what Zechariah is talking about as far as the timing of this vision will come in the millennial kingdom when Israel will truly be the light.

            I want to quote from John MacArthur as he talks about John 8:12 in his sermon on Zechariah chapter four, a sermon he entitles “Israel:  The Light of the World.” 

            “So the ultimate light, the ultimate one who diffuses the glow and glory of God is the Messiah. In fact in John 8:12, when Jesus stood up in the court of the women, in the temple treasury and said, "I am the light of the world," it was a dramatic moment because right into the middle of that was this huge candelabra, that was used during the feast time and they lit it every night to sparkle its light out the open top of that place and be like a diamond in the sky. They were celebrating the glory of God in the wilderness and they lit that thing every night and now the feast was past and the candle was out but the big thing was still sitting there and Jesus walks up and says you may have your candle, but I am the light of the world. And he turns the moment and the scene to Himself, and He is the ultimate light.

            “So the lamp stand then pictures Israel in full fellowship with the Messiah. The blessing of God is on the nation, they are restored to the place of usefulness, and they are the testimony to the world. And this is going to happen, beloved, in the future. You say, "Well since their light is out now does God have a light?" Yes, in Revelation 1:20, we find this: verse 19, "Write the things, which thou hath seen, and the things which are and the things which shall be here after, that's the outline of the book of Revelation incidentally. The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lamp stands, now listen the seven stars are the ministers of the seven churches and the seven lamp stands, which you saw are the seven churches. The lamp stand in this day is what, the church.

            “But there's coming a day when the church will be removed. The true church will be raptured out of the world and the only thing left will be babble and the hoar, the prostitute, the false church and God will not use that church, and so He will restore Israel. The church is gone, He has no witness in the world and Israel will be reborn and regenerated and redeemed and placed in the position of being the light that God intended them to be all along.”

5/26/2016 12:04 AM 

 

PT-3 "His Wisdom" (John 8:3-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2016 9:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  PT-3 His Wisdom

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:3-8

Message of the verses:  “3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.”

We have been talking about how God has brought salvation through Jesus Christ in our last SD, as this subject is seen in this passage when the Lord tells the woman “I do not condemn you either; go and sin no more.”  Salvation is a part of the wisdom of God which is what this section is entitled.  When we compare the wisdom of God with what the Pharisees were trying to do, and I have to believe that what they were doing had something to do with Satan, there is no comparison.  Paul writes about God’s wisdom and man’s foolishness: “1Co 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 

John MacArthur writes “In Jesus Christ divine justice and mercy harmonize.  Because His sacrificial death paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe in Him, God can ‘be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus’ (Rom. 3:26); in Him ‘lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other’ (Psalm 85:10).  God poured out His wrath against sin on Jesus so He can pour out His grace and mercy on those who believe.  And Jesus was the lamb’ slain from the foundation of the world’ (Rev. 13:8 NKJV), not only in the prophetic sense, but also in the sense of application.  All though redemptive history, all who were forgiven and given eternal life had the future sacrifice of the Son of God applied to their sins.”

No place yourself as a part of the crowd in watching this scene unfold, as you are not sure who this Jesus of Nazareth is, and as you watch the Pharisees bring this woman caught in the very act of adultery, you perhaps feel sorry for her, and yet you also may be ready to pick us stones to stone her.  Then you look over to see that it seems like Jesus is doing nothing at all and you wonder what the outcome of this will be as you watch intently.  Then you see Jesus stoop down and begin to write something with His finger on the ground, and although you are not close enough to read it you wonder what He is doing, what He is writing. 

Now we have speculated earlier what Jesus may have been writing, perhaps “Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD (Jer. 17:13b).”  I have stated that if I had to guess what He wrote it would have to do with “Ex 31:18  When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.”  Now I don’t think that He wrote that verse, but I do think that He could have been writing the same things that were on those two tablets, the Ten Commandment.

I suppose that the Pharisees though that they had Jesus right where they wanted Him because of His silence, but they continued to ask Him, wanting to know His response as they “persisted in asking Him.” 

There wait was over, along with all those who were watching Him from the crowd as Jesus says “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Now after He made that statement He once again stooped over and begin to write on the ground again, but said no more.  Perhaps these Scribes and Pharisees who had sent the temple police out to arrest Him earlier heard their word echo in their ears as they had said “never has a man spoke like Him before.” 

John MacArthur writes “The Lord’s reply was simple, yet profound.  It upheld the Law, since He did not deny the woman’s guilt, and broadened the Law’s power by exposing the sins of the accusers.  It also avoided the charge of instigating an execution in violation of Roman authority, since the Lord put the responsibility back on the accusers.  And it mercifully spared the woman from being stoned for her sin.

“Jesus knew that according to the Law, the witnesses to a capital offense were to be the first to throw stones at the guilty person (Deut. 13:9; 17:7).  Obviously, they could not have been participants in the crime, or they too would have been executed. Jesus was not making sinless perfection a requirement for carrying out the Law (or else no on could have done so).  It may be, then, that the woman’s accusers were themselves guilty of adultery (if no the physical ace, certainly the lust of the heart [Matt. 5:28]).

“Jesus’ masterful answer neither minimized the woman’s guilt, nor denied the Law’s sanctity.  But it cut the ground out from under the scribes and Pharisees by revealing that they were unfit to be her judges and executioners.  They were guilty of the hypocrisy that the apostle Paul condemned in Romans 2:1: ‘Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things’ (cf. Matt. 7:1).”  “"Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”

We are almost through with this first section from the eight chapter of John’s gospel as we have to next look at “His Indictment” and then “His Forgiveness” and perhaps we can do both of them in our next SD as they are both short compared to what we have been looking at.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to praise the Lord for His wonderful wisdom, the wisdom that He has that brought about my salvation.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to continue to do things that cause me to better know the God of my salvation.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Corinthians 12:7-8 “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Gibeon” (Joshua 10:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was told he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/25/2016 10:14 AM

 

  

 

The Presentation of the Vision (Zech. 4:1-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2016 11:39 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus: Presentation of the Vision

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 4:1-3

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep.  2 He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side."”

            Zechariah has not been seeing these visions for a while now and because of the awesomeness of them, because they are supernatural to see he ends up being in a type of semi-coma state as he has become spiritually exhausted which was similar to what happened to Daniel when he saw some of the visions that God had shown him.  The visions that Daniel saw were not one right after another, for he saw visions from when he was younger to when he was older, probably in his eighties.  As human beings not used to seeing things like what Daniel and Zechariah it had to be very hard on them.

            What Zechariah saw could be described as something similar to what the Jews call a menorah, and there is a big one outside the Kinnesit in Israel, where the government is held, or the Parliament meets.  This lampstand has a large bowl on top of it and then it has seven lamps on it with seven spouts that come from these lamps, making a total of 49 pipes in all.  Macarthur writes “So out of this bowl to each of those little lamps comes seven conduits.”

            Verse three speaks of two olive trees that are by this lampstand, one of the Olive trees is on the left side and one on the right side.  What we have pictured is these Olive trees producing a continued supply of oil for the lampstand.  This is different to the ones in the temple as the priest has to light them each day and add oil to them to have light.  However this one in Zechariah’s vision is automatic. 

            MacArthur write some more things about this vision:  “The second distinction is the seven tubes, or the seven conduits, or the seven pipes, and incidentally the Hebrew grammar and the Hebrew construction of the term here indicates that there were 49, seven going to each one. So there would be seven little pipes coming down to each lamp. Now in the Holy Place in the temple and the tabernacle no such pipes existed. And then you have the two olive trees on the right and on the left and flowing out of those is the oil going into the bull and then trickling down. And incidentally there are two great big giant golden tubes coming out of the olive tree. You say, "Where did you get that?" Verse 12, and it says, "I answered again and said unto Him what are the two olive branches which through the two golden conduits or channels or pipes or tubes." So let me reconstruct quickly: two great big olive trees living flowing olive trees. In fact an olive tree can last a long time. They tell us, if you're over there in Israel, that some of the olive trees are still producing oil were there as saplings when Jesus lived. They last a long time. Have you ever seen a little olive wood figure somebody brought back from Israel? It takes 40 years to cure that wood before it can be carved because the oil stays in it so long. It is an oily tree, and so there are these two olive trees, the oil flows down golden channels into this bowl and then into multiples of seven into the lamps.

“Now you say, "What in the world is this trying to show?" Well it's trying to show whatever it is it has no human agency, right? It's strictly automatic. God is producing the life in the tree and out of that the thing is being lit without any human involvement. There are no priests to trim the lamp, there's nobody putting oil in it. It's strictly an operation by God. Keep that in mind. That's the presentation of the vision.”

5/25/2016 12:01 AM

 

           

PT-2 His Wisdom (John 8:3-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2016 9:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  PT-2 “His Wisdom”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:3-8

            Message of the verses:  “3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.”

            I have heard before that it was possible that the Lord may have been writing the Ten Commandments with His finger on the floor, and then Dr. Wiersbe mentioned that this was possible because the Lord wrote the original Ten Commandments with His finger, and I do believe that this was the preincarnate Christ who did this so that does make sense to me.

            In our SD this morning we want to look, first of all at some of the OT commands that have to do with adultery.  Exodus 20:14 “"You shall not commit adultery.”  Deuteronomy 5:18 “’You shall not commit adultery.”  Leviticus 20:10 “’If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”  Let’s look at what Jesus had to say about this from Matthew 5:27 and 19:18 “"You have heard that it was said, ’YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’;”  “Then he *said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS;” Now we will see from Matthew 5:28 that Jesus makes this commandment even stronger as He says “but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

            John MacArthur writes “From a purely legal standpoint, then, these men were correct in saying that the woman deserved to die.  But the circumstances suggest that they had something else in mind.  By its very nature, adultery is a sin that involves two people—yet the Pharisees were accusing only the woman.  The obvious question was”  Where was the man?  Those who had apprehended the woman had certainly seen him too, since she had been seized ‘in the very act.’  Why had they not also arrested him and brought him before Jesus, since the Law demanded that both guilty parties be executed (Lev. 20:10)?  And if justice was all they sought, why bring the woman to Jesus at all?  Why not try her in their own courts, where such cases would normally be heard?  Jesus was not a judge (cf. Luke 12:13-14) or a member of the Sanhedrin.  Nor was there any legal difficulty that would necessitate consulting a rabbi; it was an open-and-shut case.”    I have to say that this paragraph has shed some light on this section of Scripture that I had not thought before, as it now makes more sense to me.

            Now we know the reason what the Pharisees were doing as it is made clear in verse six “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him.”  I don’t know how much these Pharisees had to do with catching this woman in adultery, but after reading some of the different things they were doing to Jesus, and the fact that they never brought the man, which would have sealed the case of the death penalty for both of them it would not surprise me that they had set this whole thing up.  Now these Pharisees though that they had Jesus in a tight space as we learned yesterday from Warren Wiersbe comments on this section, but as stated yesterday they did not know who they were dealing with and once again the very Words of Jesus would show His wisdom as we will see later on.

            John MacArthur writes the following “The challenge brought by the scribes and Pharisees also raised a deeper issue—namely, how divine justice and mercy are to be harmonized.  God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 1 Sam. 2:2; Ps. 99:9; 1 Peter 1:15-16), and His ‘Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good’ (Rom. 7:12).  The Law knows nothing of forgiveness (Rom. 3:20; 8:3; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; James 2:10).  It declares, ‘The soul who sins will die.’ (Ezek. 18:4) because ‘all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law’ (Rom. 2:12), ‘for the Law brings about wrath’ (4:15).  How then does God forgive sinners without violating His Holy Law?”

            Now the answer to that question can be illustrated in a story that I once heard and have told on different occasions to make the point we need made here in order to answer this question.  The story goes that there was a man who became a judge and this man had a son who committed a crime and had to stand before his father, the judge.  It was a very bad crime that would cause time in prison and so the man’s heart was torn between justice and mercy as one could imagine and so he had to wrestle with this great problem.  He could not just let his son go for he had committed the crime, and yet if he did let him go then that would go against the very law he had sworn to uphold.  The man decided that justice had to prevail, but because of his love for his son he wanted mercy for him and so the judge stood and took off his robe and stepped down from the bench and decided to pay for the crime himself so his son could go free, for he loved his son very much.  The story illustrates the gospel as God the Father loves His Son very much, and yet He loves those that He created very much, and yet they are all sinners and the “wage of sin is death,” and so He sent His Son to pay for our sins as He suffered and died on the cross for us so we can stand before the Father with the righteousness of His Son. 

            We will look at this subject more in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To understand the gospel is to better understand the wisdom of God, and to better understand the wisdom of God is to better understand God, to better know Him as the wisdom of the Gospel involves God’s love, grace, mercy, and also His wrath.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To better understand who God is, to better understand how to love Him more. 

Memory verses for the week:  2 Cor. 12:7-8 “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8. Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jesus” (Matthew 4:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “Name the place where Joshua commanded the sun to stand still?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/24/2016 10:48 AM    

2nd. Intro To Zechariah chapter Four

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2016 11:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  2^nd Intro. To Zech. 4

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Zech. 4:1-14

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. 2 He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side." 4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. 7 ’What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"’" 8 Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 “For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel-these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth."

    11 Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?" 12 And I answered the second time and said to him, "What are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?" 13 So he answered me, saying, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 14 Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth."”

            We will only look at a couple of paragraphs from John MacArthur’s sermon on Zechariah chapter four which he entitled “Israel: The Light of the World.”

            “Now as we look at Chapter 4, just a quick brief review: The chronology of this vision is in perfect sequence with the others. You remember that I told you at the beginning that Zechariah has eight visions all eight of which refer to the restoration of Israel both historically as they rebuild their city after the captivity and prophetically as they will be a part of God's wonderful coming kingdom. And the first of the visions that we looked at presented the outward promise of the kingdom. And then they talked about the restoration of the city and the temple. And then after there was the outward restoration, the visions moved to the inward and we saw the inward salvation that occurred. And we saw last time in Chapter 3 the saving of Israel and the figure of the cleansing of Joshua the high priest. Joshua is a picture of the nation and as Joshua was cleansed and purified so Israel is to be cleansed and purified.

“So there is an outward presentation of the kingdom, but the outward kingdom will never come until the inward salvation occurs. And now moving away from that to the next in the sequence we find that this vision deals with the usefulness of Israel in the outward kingdom when the inward cleansing has taken place. God is going to restore them to a place of wonderful usefulness. That's always the way it is. God has a plan in the world, God has a design to accomplish, but the people who accomplish it will be the people who are saved and then they will be useful to God within the framework of His plan.

“So the nation is saved in Chapter 3, prophetically and the nation is used as God's witnessing people in Chapter 4.”

5/23/2016 11:24 PM

 

           

Jesus' Wisdom PT-1 (John 8:3-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2016 11:08 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  His Wisdom

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  John 8:3-8

            Message of the verses:  “3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.”

            When we read through the Synoptic Gospels we see “The scribes and the Pharisees” many times, but this is the only time this is seen in the Gospel of John.  Usually when you see these two groups of people together it meant trouble for our Lord as it does in this section as they stop the teaching He is doing to bring a woman who they say was caught in the very act of adultery.  I think that this is a preview of the trial that these two groups of people will soon have for Jesus, as that will be just as phony as this is. 

            The scribes were sometimes called lawyers in the Scriptures and they were supposed to be experts in the Law of Moses.  John MacArthur writes that “they were usually, but not always, Pharisees, who along with the Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes were one of the four major religious sects in the first-century Judaism.  The Pharisees were noted chiefly for their strict adherence to the Mosaic Law and their oral traditions.  Though few in number (about 6,000 at the time of Herod the Great according to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus), they were the dominant religious influence among the Jewish people.

            “With the exception of Nicodemus (3:1ff. 7:50-51; 19:39-40), the Pharisees are always hostile to Jesus in John’s gospel.  (Later, some would come to believe in Him [cf. Acts 15:5]—most notably the zealous Pharisee [Acts 23:6; Gal. 1:14] Saul of Tarsus.)  The Pharisees viewed Jesus’ popularity with alarm.  They feared both losing their influence with the people and retaliation by the Romans if Jesus’ followers started a revolt (John 11:47-48; cf. 6:15).”

            Now we want to get into the mail part of this text, however it is doubtful that we will finish it in just this one SD.  Now we see that these Pharisees and Scribes break up the teaching that Jesus was doing and bring this woman to Him citing that she had committed adultery, but as I mentioned in an earlier SD there was no man, so we can see from the beginning that these are trumped up charges to try and trick Jesus, however these men had no idea who they were dealing with at all.  I want at this point to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the gospel of John as he deals with this question about what happened to the man.  “The scribes and Pharisees knew where He would be, so they hatched their plot together.

            “They would not be likely to catch a couple in the ‘very act’ of adultery; so we wonder if the man 9who never was indicted!) was part of the scheme.  The Law required that both guilty parties be stoned (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22) and not just the woman.  It does seem suspicious that the man went free.  The scribes and Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman into the midst of the crowd.

            “The Jewish leaders, of course, were trying to pin Jesus on the horns of a dilemma.  If He said, ‘Yes, the woman must be stoned!’ then what would happen to His reputation as the ‘friend of publicans and sinners’?  The common people would no doubt have abandoned Him and would never have accepted His gracious message of forgiveness.

            “But if He said, ‘No, the woman should not be stoned!’ then He was openly breaking the Law and subject to arrest.  On more than one occasion, the religious leaders had tried to pit Jesus and Moses, and now they seemed to have the perfect challenge.

            “Instead of passing judgment on the woman, Jesus passed judgment on the judges!  No doubt He was indignant at the way they treated the woman.  He was also concerned that such hypocrites should condemn another person and not judge themselves.  We do not know what He wrote on the dirt floor of the temple.  Was He simply reminding them that the Ten Commandments had been originally written ‘by the finger of God’ (Ex. 31:18), and that He is God?  Or was He perhaps reminding them of the warning in Jeremiah 17:13?

            “It was required by Jewish Law that the accusers cast the first stones (Deut. 17:7).  Jesus was not asking that sinless men judge the woman, for He was the only sinless Person present.  If our judges today had to be perfect, judicial benches would be empty.  He was referring to the particular sin of the woman, a sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (Matt. 5:27-30).  Convicted by their own consciences, the accusers quickly left the scene, and Jesus was left alone with the woman.  He forgave her and warned her to sin no more (John 5:14).”  I want to quote Jeremiah 17:13 “O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD.”

            We will continue to look at this passage in our next SD, but I thought that Warren Wiersbe’s words were worth reading as the always seem to me that they are.

            I find it interesting that as I have been thinking about John 7:46 “"Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks,"” that perhaps the very same men who sent the temple police to get Jesus were not the same ones listening to His words and they too had no answer to give.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am asking how can I know Jesus better from this passage as I look at some of the attributes of His here.  I can see the Lord’s compassion or grace and mercy for this woman.  I can see His wisdom in how He took care of this situation.  I can see His true judgment for those who brought her to Him. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to get to know my Lord better and better, to do as Moses did when he said to the Lord, “Show me Your glory.”

Memory verses for the week: 2 Corinthians 12:7-8 “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He that doeth the will of the Father will enter the kingdom” (Matthew 7:21).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘"It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”

Answer in our next SD.

5/23/2016 12:16 PM 

The Divine Christ (Zech. 3:8-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2016 11:09 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  The Divine Christ

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Zechariah 3: 8-10 

Message of the verses:  8 ’Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you-indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch. 9 ’For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ’and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10 ’In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ’every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.’"”

When we looked at this section in an earlier SD there was some interesting things that Dr. Wiersbe brought up that had to do with verse eight where Zechariah talks about “My servant the Branch,” and he listed the different times that the Messianic term was used, which was four times in different parts of the OT and how each one of them represented one of the four gospels, and John MacArthur brings up the same thing in his sermon on this section.  May 8, 2016 is the date of the SD where this can be found.

Now I want to quote a few paragraphs from John MacArthur’s sermon on this section as he too has some interesting things to say about it:  “Now I want to stop here for a minute and I want to tell you something wonderful. To me this is the most beautiful picture of the gospel just as a parallel, because look at it. It shows the sinners filthy rags of unrighteousness, doesn't it? And Isaiah said, "All our righteousness is as, what, filthy rags. We see the sinner filthy and then all of a sudden we see the angel of the Lord Jesus Christ come in, takes away the filthy garments, gives them a new robe of righteousness, a marvelous transformation takes place. That sinner is plucked from the burning of hell, as it were, cleansed with salvation and then offered a life of service to God, as a priest, and the promise of eternally being the dwelling of God. What a tremendous, tremendous message. So the divine choice, the divine condemnation, the divine cleansing, the divine covenant, and listen lastly the one who makes it all possible, the divine Christ. Without Him none of it could happen.

Who is going to do this? A Jew might be standing there and Zechariah is telling them about the vision, and he's but who is going to do this? Verse 8, "Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows who sit before thee," that would be other priests, "for they are," literally they are a symbol, I think it says that in the New American, "They are a symbol." The Hebrew word means they are a sign of a future event. He's not just talking about the men, but it tells you they are a symbol. They are symbols of future Israel. This is a future thing. People, we're looking way down the road to the end time. "For behold I will bring forth My servant, the branch." Do you have any idea who that might be? Who's going to do this? The branch, My servant the branch. He will be the redeemer. This title is a fantastic title. The branch speaks of His humiliation, speaks of His rejection and His death. Literally it means the sprout or the shoot. Isaiah 53, right? He's the root out of Jesse. Isaiah 11:1, the same thing. He comes from the earth, it's humiliation, rather obscure, but He manifests growth and vitality until finally He becomes king.”

Now I have skipped what he had to say about the different places where the term “branch” was used and want to move on to what he has to say about the stone found in verse nine.  “The concept of stone was very important to Israel. In Isaiah 8:14, the Messiah was called a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. But in Isaiah 28:16, He was called a stone of refuge. So He was either a stone of refuge or a stumbling stone to Israel. Stone was important to the nations. In Daniel Chapter 2, we saw that He's called the stone cut out with out hands that smashing the Gentile world powers. Stone is important to the church because in Ephesians 2:20, Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. Stone is Christ. He's the only one who could do this. And He says, "I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." And beloved Calvary was that one day when the lamb of God took away the sins of the world and the one day Israel's one day will be appropriated in the day when they look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as an only son, that's Zechariah 12:10. That's their day. "And in that day," says 13:1, "There shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabitants for sin and for uncleanness." There is a day and a day when Israel believes and the fountain floods from Israel to the world. And when that happens, in that day, verse 10 says, "Says the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree." Which being interpreted means nobody's going to fight any more. Peace all over the earth in the kingdom.”

In verse ten we see something that will happen during the millennial kingdom as the people of Israel will be the ones to bring the Gentiles to the Lord so that they too can be saved.

Lord willing we will continue looking at the book of Zechariah in our next SD as we move once again to look at chapter four.

5/22/2016 11:31 PM